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Robert Bauer, partner at Perkins Coie LLP and former general counsel to President Obama’s re-election campaign.

Switching gears after his most recent turn as top lawyer to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, prominent Democratic attorney Robert Bauer is returning to New York University Law School this spring to teach a seminar on political reform.

The course will encompass campaign finance, lobbying laws, voting rights and more—topics Mr. Bauer has had ample exposure to during his 30 years of practice as a lawyer, which include stints working for political campaigns and the Democratic National Committee.

A partner at Perkins Coie LLP’s Washington D.C. office, Mr. Bauer was White House Counsel from 2009 to 2011 and also served as personal attorney to Mr. Obama.

During his time on the campaign trail, Mr. Bauer led challenges to new voter laws backed by Republicans—including suing the state of Ohio in July—and lobbied the Federal Election Commission to allow individuals to text in donations (as did his Romney counterpart). Mr. Bauer also sought to compel the well-funded Republican advocacy group Crossroads GPS to disclose the names of its donors, citing millions of dollars the group has spent on campaign ads attacking Democrats.

Mr. Bauer will also have a part-time appointment at the Law School for the 2013-2014 academic year as a senior lecturer. . . Read More »

There’s no doubt that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg knows a lot about the law. But she’s also an expert on the opera.

And it’s no coincidence. The two apparently go hand-in-hand.

On Friday, Justice Ginsburg took a break from her duties as a member of the high court to appear as the main attraction on a panel at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in Chicago called, “Arias of Law: The Rule of Law at Work in Opera and the Supreme Court.”

“The founders of our country were great men with a vision,” Justice Ginsburg said. “They were held back from realizing their idea by the times in which they lived.

But, she added, their notion was that society would evolve and that the clauses of the Constitution would grow with society. . . Read More »

The son of a longtime Bernard Madoff employee on Tuesday became the latest person to plead guilty to criminal charges in the government’s probe into a decades-long fraud at the firm.

Craig Kugel, who oversaw employee benefits at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges at a hearing in Manhattan federal court, but denied any knowledge of the fraud itself.

“I want to make clear I had nothing to do with the Madoff Ponzi scheme and I was never involved in the Madoff trading operation,” he said.

Mr. Kugel, the seventh person including Mr. Madoff to plead guilty to criminal charges, has been cooperating with the government since last year, prosecutors said Tuesday. . . Read More »

Mark NeJame, the Florida attorney well-known for his representation of Tiger Woods, said in an interview on Thursday that he was asked to represent George Zimmerman about a month ago, but he declined to take the case because of time constraints.

On Tuesday, Zimmerman’s lawyers Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig announced they were stepping down, saying at a news conference that they haven’t heard from their client and that “has gone out on his own” without consulting them.

Afterward, NeJame said, he was again approached by a representative for Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. NeJame again declined, but he suggested five lawyers, including O’Mara, who was hired. . . Read More »

Two lawyers for the neighborhood watchman believed to have shot Florida teenager Trayvon Martin are resigning the case.

The Associated Press is reporting that lawyers Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig have halted their representation of George Zimmerman, saying at a news conference that they haven’t heard from their former client and that “has gone out on his own” without consulting them.

In the February killing of Martin in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, Zimmerman, said he acted in self-defense in shooting the teenager. Mr. Zimmerman hasn’t been arrested or charged. Read More »

A Tennessee high school principal resigned Thursday, shortly after the American Civil Liberties Union requested an investigation into allegations the principal threatened expulsion of students who were gay or showed affection to someone of the same sex, AP reported.

Dorothy Bond, who was principal of Haywood High School in Brownsville, Tenn., is said to have proclaimed that gay students are “not on God’s path” and are “going to a bad place.” At a student assembly, Bond reportedly dismissed all male students and lectured female students, saying girls who got pregnant in high school ended up “jobless, homeless, and living off the government” and that “life is over,” according to a statement from the ACLU.

Other claims of official prayer and proselytizing included gathering students in the cafeteria to pray after a serious car accident affected the community. . . Read More »

On October 26, 2009, Defendant Susan Finkelstein posted an advertisement on the internet forum Craigslist that read: “Diehard Phillies fan—gorgeous tall buxom blonde—in desperate need of two World Series tickets. Price negotiable—I’m the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!”

That same day [Sgt Robert Bugsch] with the Bensalem Township Police Department was monitoring Craigslist postings for possible prostitution advertisements. [Sergeant Bugsch] replied to Defendant’s ad via email requesting to see Defendant’s photograph. A few minutes [later], Defendant responded with three (3) topless photographs of herself with the message, “No problem, Robert. Here’s a few for ya!”

[Sergeant Bugsch] asked how she wanted to pay for the World Series ticket, which began the following verbatim email exchange:

The WSJ’s latest installment on the expansion of federal offenses focuses on mens rea, which is Latin for “guilty mind.” It’s the idea that you have to intend to commit a crime to commit a crime. This is bedrock stuff.

But critics of the federal criminal justice system argue the government is criminalizing mistakes that might more appropriately be handled with civil fines or injunctions. Take the case of Lawrence Lewis, who was chief engineer at a military retirement home in Maryland when he pleaded guilty in federal court to violating the Clean Water Act.

His crime: In 2007, Lewis and his staff diverted a backed-up sewage system into an outside storm drain. . . Read More »

Since it’s “Jobs Friday,” let’s have a bit of economic news first. Unemployment slides, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s report Friday morning. The U.S. labor market strengthened in November, as private employers continued to add jobs at a healthy pace and the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since March 2009.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 120,000 last month and the unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, fell to 8.6% from 9% in October. The rate is now lower than at any point since March 2009, when it was 8.6% as well. Here’s further analysis and the live blog on the jobs report.

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

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